Valved air exhaust fittings



June 19, 1956 A. D. COLE ET AL VALVED AIR EXHAUST FITTINGS Filed Jan. 22, 1953 United States Patent VALVED AIR EXHAUST FITTINGS Arthur D. Cole and Frank L. Tourville, St. Paul, Minn., assignors to Cole-Sewell Engineering Company, St. Paul, Minn., a corporation of Minnesota Application January 22, 1953, Serial No. 332,732

2 Claims. (Cl. 98-119) Our invention relates to improvements in valved air exhaust fittings particularly, though not exclusively, for association with the air outlets of household laundry driers.

An object of the invention is to provide an article of the instant nature including an air exhaust pipe adapted to extend horizontally through the wall of a building from the air outlet of an appliance therein to the exterior of the building, and including also at the outer end of said pipe, a chcek valve adapted to check back drafts through said pipe from the exterior of the buildmg.

Another and important object of the invention is to provide a durable article of the character above indicated, of simple and inexpensive construction, which is easy to install and which is capable of effectively preventing the inflow of air therethrough from without the building to the interior thereof, and which is readily responsive and of slight impediment to the outflow of air from within the building to the outside thereof.

Other objects of the invention reside in the novel combination and arrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafter illustrated and/or described.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a valved air exhaust fitting constructed in accordance with our invention, the same being shown in association with the wall of a building and an appliance illustrated fragmentarily in dotted lines.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken as on the line 22 of Fig. 1, the same being shown on a scale enlarged over the scale shown in said Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on the same scale as Fig. 2, said view being taken as on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view in full size scale taken as on the line 44 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a sectional view also in full size scale, taken as on the line 55 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken as on the line 66 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 7 is an elevational view, enlarged over the full size scale, showing that portion of the hinge means illustrated at the upper right-hand corner of Fig. 3, a portion of the structure being broken away to reveal structure that otherwise would be concealed.

Reference being had to the drawing, it will be seen that the illustrated embodiment of our invention includes a cylindrical exhaust pipe 10 adapted to extend through an outer wall of a building, as at 11, and to be coupled at its inner end with an appliance, such as a clothes drier 12 from which it is desired to conduct air under pressure to the outside of the building. Fixed to the outer end of said exhaust pipe 10 is a wall plate 13 adapted to lie flush against the outer surface of the building wall 11 and cover that area of said surface adjacently surrounding said outer end of said exhaust pipe 10. This wall plate 13 has a circular aperture 14 therein centrally thereof and it is formed with an outwardly extending flange 15 about the perimeter of said aperture 14 which provides a sleeve. The outer end portion of said exhaust pipe 10 fits snugly within said sleeve 15 and is spot welded thereto, as at 16. Desirably the edge at the outer end of the exhaust pipe 10 is flush with the outer edge of the sleeve 15, the said two edges of pipe and sleeve forming a valve seat 17. However, if either of the edges of said pipe 10 or sleeve 15 is outermost, it alone will form the valve seat 17.

Struck from the upper portion of the wall plate 13 are a pair of horizontally spaced tongues 18. Said tongues 18 are tapered and are bent out of the plane of the wall plate 13 to form upright hooks 19. Each tapered hook 19 has a lower supporting reach 20 upwardly biased outwardly from the wall plate 13. The edge walls 20a of each reach 20 provides upper corners 21 at the upper surface of such reach, said corners converging upwardly and outwardly from said wall plate 13.

Suspended from the hooks 19 is a check plate A having a body 22a which normally hangs flush against the valve seat 17. The upper portion of said check plate A is bent out of the plane of the body 22a into a plane upwardly biased inwardly therefrom to form a hinge member 22b. A pair of horizontally spaced circular apertures 23 are punched in the check plate A, the upper portion of each aperture 23 being in the hinge member 22b. The spacing of said apertures 23 conforms with the spacings of the hooks 19, one hook being received in one of said apertures and the other hook being received in the other of said apertures. The supporting reach 20 of each hook 19 is saddled by that portion of the hinge member 22b of said check plate A at the locality of its respective aperture 23. The laterally opposite side wall portions 23a of the upper portion of each of said apertures 23 provide lower corners 25 at the lower surface of the hinge member 22b. These lower corners 25 of each aperture 23 converge upwardly and inwardly and normally override their respective upper corners 21 of their respective hook supporting reach 20. However, if said relationship of parts is not precisely attained in the assembling of the check plate A on the hooks 19 of the wall plate 13, only the one lower corner 25 along the wall at one side of each aperture 23 will ride its respective corner 21 of the supporting reach 20 of its respective hook 19. In either of said situations, the contact between the hinge member 22b and the supporting reaches 20 of the hooks 19 is point contact.

The points of contact between said hinge member 22b and the supporting reaches 20 of said hooks 19 lie in a vertical plane, offset inwardly from the plane of the valve seat 17, with the result that the depending body 22a of the check plate A will normally fiushlyhug said valve seat 17 and thereby preclude the entry of air into the pipe 10 from without the building. The sloping of the supporting reaches 20 of the hooks 19, saddled by the hinge member 22b of the check plate A, tends to maintain said inwardly offset relationship of said points of contact. The converging of the upper corners 21 of said supporting reaches 20 away from the wall plate 13 elimlnates any binding between the hinge member 22b and said supporting reaches 20 when the check plate A is urged to swing away from the valve seat 17, as by pressure of air from within the exhaust pipe 10. Thus, in the absence of air pressure within the exhaust pipe 10, the check plate A will eifectively close said pipe against the entry of air thereinto from the outside of the building, while, with the presence of air pressure within said pipe, said check plate A will freely respond to such pressure and swing away from said valve seat 17 permitting the air under pressure within the pipe to flow outwardly therefrom.

greases To shelter the check plate A from the elements and likewise the pivotal connection between said check plate and the wall plate 13, a bottom-opening hood B is mounted on said wall plate. This hood B includes a front wall 26 sloping downwardly and outwardly from the upper portion of the wall plate 13 and further in cludes end walls 27 between said front wall 26 and said wall plate 13, each of said walls having an attaching flange 28 thereon lying against said wall plate 13 and spot welded thereto, as at 29.

An inside finishing plate 30 is slidably mounted on the exhaust pipe 10, intermediately thereof, and is adaptedto overlie the inner surface of the building wall 11 about the hole 31 made therein for the reception of the ex haust pipe 10. Said finishing plate 30 has a central aperture therein and an annular flange at the perimeter of said aperture forming a sleeve 32 which fits over said pipe It) slidably, thus allowing said plate 30 to be moved along the pipe into position against the building wall.

The present device, constructed as a unit, is obviously easy to transport and easy to install, even at the hands of unskilled persons. It meets the demand for a delicately operating exhaust back draft check and the demand for low cost in such an article, all of which results from the herein disclosed construction of parts which admit of considerable tolerance in the assembly thereof.

Changes in the specific form of our invention, as herein described, may be made within the scope of what is claimed without departing from the spirit of our invention.

Having described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. It is an article of the character described, an exhaust pipe adapted to extend horizontally through the wall I of a building from the inside to the outside thereof, an outer wall plate having an aperture therein and an annular flange about said aperture forming a sleeve, the outer end portion of said pipe being received in and secured to said sleeve, the outer edge of one of the said sleeve and pipe forming an annular valve seat, a pair of horizontally spaced tongues issuing from the upper portion of said wall plate, each tongue forming a tapered hook having a supporting reach extending upwardly and outwardly from said wall plate, a check plate including a body having a hinge member at the top thereof in the form of a flange inwardly inclined from said body, said hinge member being formed with a pair of horizontally spaced apertures therein, one aperture for each hook, said hooks being received in their respective apertures, the supporting reach of each hook being saddled by the hinge member at that portion thereof in which the aperture for such hook is formed, said hooks together with said hinge member of said check plate providing a connection between the check plate and outer wall plate swingably suspending the former from the latter, the supporting reach of each hook having edge walls providing upper corners at the upper surface of such reach converging upwardly and outwardly from the wall plate, each hook receiving aperture having at its upper portion laterally opposite side wall portions providing lower corners at the lower surface of said hinge member converging upwardly and inwardly toward the wall plate and overriding the upper corners of its respective hook supporting reach in point contact therewith in a vertical plane offset inwardly from the plane of said valve seat, the body of said check plate being adapted normally to hang in flush contact with said valve seat preventing the influx of air into the pipe from the outer end thereof, said check plate being adapted freely to swing outwardly away from said valve seat in response to air pressure from within the pipe.

2. In an article of the character described, an exhaust pipe adapted to extend horizontally through the wall of a building from the inside to the outside thereof, an outer wall plate having an aperture therein through which said pipe opens, an annular valve seat encircling said aperture, said valve seat being disposed in a vertical plane spaced outwardly from the outer face of said wall plate, a pair of horizontally spaced hooks issuing from the upper portion of said wall plate, each hook including a tapered supporting reach extending upwardly and outwardly from said outer wall plate, the edge walls of each reach providing upwardly and outwardly converging upper corners at the upper surface of such reach, a check plate ineluding a body and a flange-like hinge member at the top thereof upwardly and inwardly inclined therefrom, sand hinge member having a pair of apertures therein for the reception of said hooks, each aperture having laterally opposed side wall portions at the upper portion thereof providing upwardly and inwardly converging lower corners at the lower surface of the hinge member, one at least of the said lower corners provided by each aperture overriding its respective upper corner of the supporting reach of its respective hook in point contact therewith inwardly of the plane of said valve seat, the body of said check plate being adapted normally to hang in flush contact with said valve seat preventing the influx of air into the pipe from the outer end thereof, said check plate being adapted freely to swing outwardly away from said valve seat in response to air pressure existing within the p1pe.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,064,951 Wofford June 17, 1913 1,397,739 Moyer Nov. 22, 1921 1,493,655 Vernon May 13, 1924 1,874,083 Clay Aug. 30, 1932 1,935,216 Sievert Nov. 14, 1933- 2,005,615 Ferris June 18, 1935 2,483,547 Koch Oct. 4, 1949 2,579,395 Pfautsch Dec. 18, 1951 

